Episode 20
Why don't BC's farmers cooperate more?
This episode: when my guest was an urban farmer in Vancouver in the 2010s, she co-founded a marketing co-operative with her colleagues to streamline her produce sales. Intrigued by the problem-solving potential of cooperative business structures, she went on to obtain her Masters degree--and then her PhD--studying farming cooperatives in Japan. Emi Do currently works for Young Agrarians as its co-op coordinator. She joined me for a conversation about growing produce in Vancouver backyards, her studies of Japan's food system, and why co-ops are much less common in BC's food system.